Tuesday 2 December 2008 | Guest who is checking out | I've decided that I am not coming back to stay here in future | Guest service agent - Can I suggest I call the duty manager? | Duty manager - Good morning, madam. I understand that you have stayed with us on several occasions including the last three nights, that you feel we have let you down and you're cancelling next week's reservation. I'd like the opportunity to change your mind. What can I do to make that happen?

Tuesday 2 December 2008 | What a difference a year makes. As a nation we find ourselves with rising unemployment, a declining housing market, and tight liquidity markets. As the financial crisis has become widespread, the hospitality industry has been similarly impacted with declining occupancy levels and slower or negative ADR growth. This article discusses 10 proactive strategies for hoteliers to adapt to the economic downturn and try to improve profitability in their hotels or resorts.

Monday 1 December 2008 | Fit for now... fit for the future. Just what or who are leisure clubs competing against? It is no longer just down to price or the choice of one leisure brand over another. Research proves that the consumer is also looking for 'the experience'. And the competition is not just restricted to the super size clubs of 2,000 members. You can now add to the mix the growth in the 'affordable luxury' day and residential spa sector, investment and branding in public sector leisure clubs, and the growth in 'high end' hobbies such as cycling and outdoor activities.

Friday 28 November 2008 | India is known the world over as the land of hospitality. Today, Hospitality India is under siege; held to ransom by a bunch of radical terrorists who have decided to make sure that they are heard – loud and clear. The hospitality industry has, unfortunately, always been at the forefront of bearing the brunt of acts of terror around the globe. Is this India's 9/11? The fact that the hotel sector has been so visibly impacted will undoubtedly lead to consequences that are too scary to imagine. The global economic crisis of the past few months has been difficult enough. This has just compounded the situation further.

Thursday 27 November 2008 | Have you ever arrived at the end of the interview process, worn-out but optimistic, only to be turned down by your top candidate? It's almost worse than the disappointment of a teenage date rejection. What's going on here? Weren't you supposed to be the person in the power chair? Shouldn't this person be overjoyed to receive your offer? Unless the candidate received a better offer from another company, the reason for the rejection was probably your company's failure to develop a relationship with the candidate. Experienced top performers may be hesitant about taking a job with people whom they do not know or do not like; they are much more likely to accept when they feel that they have established a connection with future managers and co-workers. I myself got burned when I was a young and naïve college grad and have since become very careful about investigating future managers and team members. Let me share my personal experience.

Thursday 27 November 2008 | By 2030, US men will be swapping the football for culinary skills as Gordon Ramsay becomes the new male icon. Why? Upwardly mobile men, aged 25-44 are becoming passionate about food and the rewards it brings -- pleasure, praise and love. No longer will conversations in the bar be about 'the Superbowl or World Series' but tips and recipes about the best food and wine. Across the world, societies are changing. By 2040, there will be 10% more men in China than women, so men will have to work harder to impress those ladies -- all in the hope of love. Today, we are observing a micro trend of men taking cookery courses, learning to appreciate wine, taking charge in the kitchen and food becoming the new hobby.

Monday 24 November 2008 | OK, it’s official. The U.S. hotel industry is in a funk. The October data from STR makes it clear that the good times of 2005, 2006 and 2007 are now but a fond memory. The figure that tells the story is year-over-year average daily rate growth. It had been a while since we had witnessed industry wide ADR contractions—until October’s year-over-year 0.5-percent decline. The last time ADR didn’t experience positive monthly growth: • Sammy Sosa of baseball’s Chicago Cubs was ejected from a game after he was found to have used a corked bat during a 3-2 victory over Tampa Bay. Major League confiscated 76 of Sosa’s spare bats, and all were found to contain no cork. Sosa has since retired from the game amid accusations of rampant steroid use. • Martha Stewart was indicted by a federal grand jury on nine criminal counts including securities fraud, obstruction of justice and conspiracy in the U.S. government’s investigation of her alleged insider trading of ImClone Systems stocks in 2001. She was eventually found guilty, sent to prison, released, and now appears to have put the episode behind her.

Sunday 23 November 2008 | It seems hardly a day goes by without some grim economic statistic making headlines, and sending tremors throughout the business community, including the hospitality sector. Their confidence clearly shaken by a number of events – from declining home values to skyrocketing food and gas prices – consumers are cutting back across the board and hospitality is feeling the effects. What we’re getting is a rather rude reminder that the economy is, after all, cyclical in nature. I’ve been a marketer long enough to have seen my fair share of ups and downs. When a rising economic tide is lifting all boats, we all look like heroes. However, I’m a firm believer that a slackening economy offers an unequalled opportunity for really smart, tenacious marketers to show what they’re made of...

Saturday 22 November 2008 | Making hotel mortgage loans and dealing with troubled hotel loans is always more complex than with other real estate assets. Some of these issues have been nicely summarized at www.HotelLawBlog.com in a current series of articles on troubled hotel mortgage loans. A lot has changed since the mid 1990s when there was an estimated wave of some 2,000 hotel bankruptcy filings. The veteran hotel lawyers in JMBM's Global Hospitality Group® represented many major lenders, the FDIC and RTC, and also a number of noteworthy borrowers in cleaning up that mess.

Saturday 22 November 2008 | Since conducting this study for the first time two years ago the pressure on companies to practice good corporate governance compliance has clearly made its mark. As investors have become increasingly demanding and have placed companies’ boards under greater scrutiny so have the accessibility and transparency of data and information vastly improved. Shareholders’ voices are heard much more loudly these days, especially when it comes to contentious topics such as executive compensation. Bonuses and ‘golden parachutes’ in particular have come under the scrutiny of the European Union Finance Ministers this year who have appealed for greater appeal transparency on executive pay. We have certainly noticed an improvement in this area although many companies in continental Europe are still more reluctant to make the details of executives’ pay packages public knowledge compared to their cousins in the UK and North America.